Jakarta, IO – Leading in popularity polls against his opponents Ganjar Pranowo and Anies Baswedan, presidential hopeful Prabowo Subianto is riding a tide that will more than likely result in his becoming Indonesia’s eighth head of state.
Having lost as a contender in the 2014 and 2019 presidential elections against his rival Joko Widodo, Prabowo is proving what many successful politicians already know: persistence is important, and losing an election should be viewed as an potential asset, not a liability. In fact, losing can be an opportunity to learn from one’s mistakes and therefore increase one’s chances of winning in the next election.
The experiences of past American presidents are good examples of how unflinching determination can pay off in the end. The biographies of Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Bill. Clinton, Ronald Reagan, George W Bush and Barack Obama reveal they had lost important elections before reaching higher office.
Lyndon Baines Johnson, or LBJ, who started his political career as a representative and later a senator from the state of Texas, was renowned for his mastery of the legislative process. His achievements, first as a majority and minority leader of the Democratic Party in the Senate starting in the early 1950s, and then later as president from 1963 until 1969, were lauded for their indelible impact on the fabric of American society. In fact, his administration passed laws on civil rights, health care, welfare and education (which Johnson referred to as the Great Society) with programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, programs which remain in place until this day.
Undoubtedly American society would have been much different had Johnson not entered politics. Nothing was preordained about his political career, however, and much unlike John F. Kennedy, under whom Johnson served as vice-president until his asassination in 1963, Johnson grew up in poverty. Biographer Robert Caro described him as being raised “in a land without electricity, where the soil was so rocky that it was hard to earn a living on it.” Yet because of his grit and will to prevail Johnson eventually found a path into the world of politics, and although he lost a bid for the US Senate in 1941, Johnson stayed his course and emerged as one of the most influential US politicians of the 20th century.
Richard Nixon, Johnson›s successor after his deciding not to seek re-election in 1968, was also a man who grew up in poverty. Born into a family of Quakers in a small town in Southern California, Nixon›s native intelligence eventually won him a full scholarship at the prestigious Duke law school.
Nixon’s admission into Duke was in large part the result of a recommendation letter penned by the president of his undergraduate school, Whittier College, in which he wrote «I cannot recommend him too highly because I believe Nixon will become one of America›s important, if not great leaders.»